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Awakening degree determining system

a technology of determining system and awakening degree, applied in the direction of electric devices, vehicular safety arrangments, process and machine control, etc., can solve the problems of serious traffic accident, reduced awakening degree, and affected vehicle behavior, so as to enhance the accuracy of determining the awakening degree of a driver on a vehicl

Inactive Publication Date: 2007-05-29
DENSO CORP
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0007]It is an object of the present invention to provide an awakening degree determining system where accuracy for determining an awakening degree of a driver on a vehicle can be enhanced by considering traffic environments surrounding the vehicle.
[0009]When a preceding vehicle is existing ahead of a subject vehicle, the subject vehicle undergoes the limitation due to the preceding vehicle. The vehicle behavior of the subject vehicle or driving operation under a condition where the subject vehicle travels to follow the preceding vehicle is thereby differentiated from that under a condition where the subject vehicle singly travels without seeing the preceding vehicle. When this difference is considered, determining accuracy of the awakening degree of a driver can be enhanced. In the above-described structure of the present invention, the reference for determining an awakening degree is changed based on whether a preceding vehicle is detected or not. Therefore, the awakening degree is determined upon considering an influence of a peripheral traffic environment of whether the preceding vehicle is existing or not. Consequently, the accuracy for determining the awakening degree of a driver can be increased in comparison to the conventional methods.

Problems solved by technology

The decreased awakening degree potentially occurs a serious traffic accident.
However, the vehicle behavior is affected by peripheral traffic environments while the vehicle is actually driven.
This restricts increase of the accuracy for determining the awakening degree of a driver.

Method used

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Examples

Experimental program
Comparison scheme
Effect test

first embodiment

[0022](First Embodiment)

[0023]FIG. 1 shows a schematic overall structure of a drive assisting system 100 mounted in a (subject) vehicle according to a first embodiment. The drive assisting system 100 includes a steering sensor 10, an accelerator pedal sensor 20, a brake pedal sensor 30, a laser radar sensor 40, a vehicle speed sensor 50, a navigation device 60, an alarming device 70, and a computer 80 to which the foregoing sensors or the like are connected.

[0024]The computer 80 includes an input and output (I / O) interface (not shown) and various driving circuits (not shown). Hardware structure of the computer 80 is known, so that its explanation is eliminated here. The computer 80 determines whether an awakening degree of a driver is decreased or not based on a variation state of a driving operation that is performed by the driver and affects a vehicle behavior. When the awakening degree is determined to be decreased, warning is outputted to enhance the awakening degree of the driv...

second embodiment

[0053](Second Embodiment)

[0054]Next, a drive assisting system according to a second embodiment will be explained with reference to FIGS. 4, 5. The overall structure of the drive assisting system of this embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment, so that the explanation is eliminated here.

[0055]In the first embodiment, the first and second determining references are previously determined and either of the first and second determining references is selected by whether the preceding vehicle is existing or not. However, since a characteristic of the driving operation is varied depending on a driver, the fixed determining reference sometimes results in missing of the proper determination for the awakening degree of a driver.

[0056]Therefore, in this embodiment, the upper and lower limits of the determining reference is determined based on an average that is computed from variation state of the driving operation while the driver is actually driving the subject vehicle. This en...

third embodiment

[0064](Third Embodiment)

[0065]Next, a drive assisting system according to a third embodiment will be explained with reference to FIG. 6. The overall structure of the drive assisting system of this embodiment is also the same as that of the first embodiment, so that the explanation is eliminated here.

[0066]The feature of the third embodiment is that, when the first and second determining references are computed with the same method as that of the second embodiment, the first and second determining references are computed while being classified based on road attributes. When the road attribute such as a road type of an expressway, a local road, etc; a road width; and a speed limit, is changed, variation states of the driving operations are changed. Computing the first and second determining references based on the road attribute thereby results in enhancement of the determining accuracy for the awakening degree.

[0067]The featured parts of this embodiment will be explained below with r...

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Abstract

When a variation amount of a driving operation falls outside of a determining reference, a determining system determines that an awakening degree of a driver is decreased. The determining system changes the determining reference by whether or not a preceding vehicle is existing within a given distance. Therefore, in consideration of peripheral traffic environments such as existence and absence of the preceding vehicle, the awakening degree of the driver is determined, so that determining accuracy of the awakening degree is enhanced more than that of a conventional method.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is based on and incorporates herein by reference Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-412267 filed on Dec. 10, 2003.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to an awakening degree determining system that determines an awakening degree of a driver on a vehicle.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Dozing while driving or inattentive driving is derived from a decreased awakening degree of a driver on a vehicle. The decreased awakening degree potentially occurs a serious traffic accident. Therefore, various awakening degree determining systems have been proposed.[0004]For instance, in Patent document 1, enhancing accuracy of an awakening degree determining system is proposed. Here, moving integration values with respect to vehicle behavior detection data such as a steering angle are obtained during a learning period for which a vehicle speed is stabilized to thereby stabilize operating conditions. A threshold val...

Claims

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Application Information

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Patent Type & Authority Patents(United States)
IPC IPC(8): B60K28/02B60K28/00G08B23/00B60K28/06G08G1/16
CPCB60K28/066B60W2750/308B60W2550/30B60W2754/30B60W2554/80G08B21/06
Inventor ISAJI, KAZUYOSHITSURU, NAOHIKO
Owner DENSO CORP
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